Alan Jones: ICAC, not Berejiklian, is the guilty party in Maguire scandal

Time and time again innocent parties have had their names smeared in the name of fighting corruption. It is ironic that Gladys Berejiklian may become another of them, writes Alan Jones.

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The great redeeming feature of a democracy is that people are infinitely smarter than they are often given credit for.

This has been proven by the sympathetic public response to what is now the Berejiklian affair.

It may well be that, by the end of the week, and by completion of the evidence of Daryl Maguire, Gladys Berejiklian’s position may be untenable, yet Daniel Andrews will continue on as Premier of Victoria.

The public simply ask, have we embraced stupidity over common sense?

This Berejiklian story has gone around the world. Who knows what people must be thinking?

I have known Gladys Berejiklian for a long time. Whatever she has or hasn’t done, her private life is no business of ours.

It is our business if, as an elected representative, she has allowed her private life to interfere with the responsible exercise of her elected responsibilities.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is entitled to a private life. Picture: Jeremy Piper

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But to date, there has been no proof of that; assertions yes, but no proof.

And this is where I say, yet again, it is not Gladys Berejiklian who should be in the dock, but ICAC itself.

Nonetheless, in some sad way, the Premier has been hoisted on her own petard.

I can’t remember how many times that I, and others, have sought to persuade government to reform the whole ICAC machinery in New South Wales.

This is an outfit that seems to thrive on the blood sport of destroying the reputations of high profile people.

Ask the former Emergency Services Commissioner, Murray Kear.

ICAC found him corrupt. Thankfully, he was able to get into a court of law.

The Magistrate demolished the credibility of ICAC.

Ask the gifted former Deputy Senior Crown Prosecutor of New South Wales, Margaret Cunneen.

Former deputy crown prosecutor Margaret Cuneen was another ICAC target before she had her name cleared. Picture: Richard Dobson

She had to go all the way to the High Court to clear her name of ICAC damage and invention.

The former Labor MP, Ian MacDonald and the union leader, John Maitland both went to jail, ICAC inspired, over the granting of a coal exploration license.

They have had their convictions overturned by the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal.

A retrial has been ordered.

What justice was dished out to the very fine NSW Police Minister, Michael Gallacher, an innocent man whose reputation was trashed by ICAC.

The reality is, Gladys Berejiklian and her colleagues abandoned him.

ICAC won.

Ask former Liberal MP Marie Ficarra, former Liberal candidate Bart Bassett and then, of course, John Sidoti, still in the New South Wales Parliament, still being investigated by ICAC a year after investigations began.

This is presumably called ICAC justice.

He has been stood down, but a very decent man has his reputation trashed, hung out to dry and no indication when this ICAC mob will be finished with him.

Former Premier Mike Baird promised to reform ICAC.

Ask Charif Kazal, a reputable and decent Sydney businessman, branded corrupt by ICAC.

Gladys Berejiklian, as Premier, has had any number of requests based on findings by reputable judges in relation to the innocence of Kazal, yet he appears on the ICAC website as being corrupt.

A 2015 review of ICAC by the then ICAC Inspector, the late David Levine, recommended the establishment of an exoneration protocol to allow people found corrupt by ICAC, but not convicted in the courts, to have their names removed from ICAC’s website.

Mike Baird, the then-Premier, gave the assurance, “If anyone has been wronged by ICAC, ICAC will be held accountable”.

Nothing happened.

Gladys Berejiklian promised in 2018, “Our ICAC Committee (that is of the Parliament), is looking at ways in which we can ensure that people who have been through the process and exonerated, somehow get justice.”

Nothing happened.

Reputations trashed in the public place but no apology, no compensation.

Daryl Maguire fronts ICAC as the final witness in the month-long probe into his dealings as a politician.

All of this brings us back to Gladys Berejiklian who, as Premier, should have done what her predecessors didn’t do, fix this mess up.

What we are hearing this week about a fundamentally decent woman, and the others I have mentioned, leads to one simple conclusion, as I have argued many times.

This stuff should never be in the public place until evidence is heard, considered by truly independent and knowledgeable entities.

And then, if necessary, charges can be laid. Then names and details can be made public.

Only yesterday, in Queensland, the Chairman of the Crime and Corruption Commission, Alan MacSporran QC, wrote to all candidates in the election.

Among other things he said, “For a number of years, the CCC has been advising of the difficulties created when allegations of corrupt conduct are made public prior to, or at the same time as, a complaint is made to the CCC. Publicising allegations of corrupt conduct may adversely affect the ability of the CCC to perform its corruption function, damage the reputation of the person alleged to have engaged in corrupt conduct and compromise the fair trial of persons charged with corruption. The publication of a complaint can also lead to unsubstantiated allegations being aired publicly and may give the appearance a complaint is motivated for political gain or other reasons …”

Former NSW resources minister Ian Macdonald spent time in jail in part due to an ICAC investigation. Picture: AAP Image/Dean Lewins

The language is simple, but there seems no concern in NSW about damaging a person’s reputation, or indeed, compromising the fair trial of a person charged with corruption.

The system we have now is a world of gossip, revelations, voyeurism and the trashing of reputations.

Gladys Berejiklian is a broken and lonely figure. Her mistake seems to be that she found love with the wrong person. That has nothing to do with us, unless, there is clear proof that her personal life interfered with her political responsibilities and so far there is no proof.

She, and all of us, would agree that it is essential there be an independent body to hear all issues relating to matters such as this and to establish what happened; but that should happen in camera, not in public, where every titillating story about Gladys Berejiklian is documented page by page, minute by minute.

I will say for the umpteenth time.

Former police minister Michael Gallacher also had his reputation taken away. Picture Cameron Richardson

You don’t need to be too smart to know where the real corruption lies.

What we are witnessing, yet again, is a corruption of process.

MacSporran’s letter of yesterday confirms that there is another way of doing all this.

Sadly, it is not what Gladys Berejiklian has or has not done that may well finish her off; and so far, if justice is to mean anything, she’s completely innocent until the opposite can be proven.

But when you are dealing with ICAC, none of that is relevant.

The headlines, the gossip, the innuendo, the rumour, the voyeurism – these things destroy a reputation.

It is a rotten system masquerading as justice.

There is no place in any democratic society for this kind of ICAC.